Walking Together for a Better Future
This is extremely personal for me. My wife is Aboriginal, my mother-in-law born on Palm Island and her parents a part of the stolen generation.
My daughters, Astin who is four and Emery who is two, are Aboriginal. I made a promise when they were born I would do everything I can to create a better future for them.
Will the decisions I make today create a better future for my children and children throughout Townsville, Palm Island and Australia? This is the question I ask myself every day.
Will The Voice create a better future for Aboriginal children facing significant challenges right now?
Will The Voice put an end to children as young as four smoking marijuana?
Will The Voice stop the five-year-old who was sexually assaulted by a family member with the child returned to the perpetrator because the authorities don’t want to remove an Aboriginal child from their Aboriginal family? That child is at risk right now.
Will The Voice stop the high incarceration rates?
Will The Voice bring us together as a nation?
Will The Voice stop domestic violence?
My view is it won’t. It will not come close.
So, I do not support The Voice.
The Aboriginal people in my family and the many I’ve spoken to in the community and around the country do not support The Voice.
In 10 years time, I would not be able to look my Aboriginal daughters in the eye and say I bent the knee because of emotional blackmail. Which is what we are seeing from this Albanese Government.
I cannot and I won’t.
I am committed to creating a better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. From the ground up, I support a local and regional body that represents them, working with Elders and the grass roots people in the community.
Let’s work together on being solutions focused.
If you can’t get local governance right, you won’t get it right nationally. We need local and regional bodies.
When I looked at my daughters before I left for Canberra I told them I loved them and I would fight for a better future for them. And I will every day.
You have to make the hard decisions over easy wrong ones.
We must walk together for a better future for all Australians.
ENDS